Pressureless perique?

[oldbear]

I would be very interested in your luck or results with the honey additive; something I want to try myself. In cigar leaf processing it is called "betun" (various spellings).

I intend to try this myself in my next batches.

Oldbear

 

[Planter]

After 4 days, the honey-infused jar had some yeast growth on top of the liquid, and on top of that a bit of mold was showing up (never had mold before). I took that off, but will watch it over the coming days. So far it doesn´t look like some extra magic is happening.

 

[oldbear]

I have been blending with some of my perique style burley leaf and it works very well. It has a pleasant mild flavor (though no fig preserve odor) and lots of nicotine.

See my "Small batch perique processing posts elsewhere".

Oldbear

 

[Knucklehead]

I have been blending with some of my perique style burley leaf and it works very well. It has a pleasant mild flavor (though no fig preserve odor) and lots of nicotine.

See my "Small batch perique processing posts elsewhere".

Oldbear

I'm glad you had a successful experiment. I've been reading your latest posts and look forward to more info on your trip to the Perique processing place.

 

[oldbear]

I'm glad you had a successful experiment. I've been reading your latest posts and look forward to more info on your trip to the Perique processing place.

I made a few posts on this topic; here is one:
http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/4849-Small-batch-perique-processing

Oldbear

 

[jolly]

I pulled the leaves out yesterday and broke the plug apart. The smell was pretty nasty. The only time I've ever encountered this smell was when I was homebrewing and a batch of stout went south. This stuff is several clicks further south of that.

Plug pulled from jar.


Leaves spread out.


I left the leaves like this for about an hour, then repacked them and added some water. This morning the froth was pretty furious. Smell is unpleasant. Hopefully this turns out nice, but it's really foul right now. I won't touch it again except to add water for the next two months.

 

[jolly]

Ok, I pulled the leaves out a few days ago. They smelled really really bad. I separated them and hung them on bamboo skewers to dry. I put them in our storage room because it had been raining outside and I was worried the humidity would be to high and they'd mold overnight. The next day my wife opened the door to the storage room and almost threw up, and that after I'd already moved them outside that morning. The only thing I've smelled remotely like this was when I had a batch of homebrew go south. But this was much worse. It's calmed down a bit outside, but when the back door is open I still get whiffs of it. I'm going to wait till this weekend to do a burn test, but I'm afraid to...

This was an experiment with some leaves I had no plans for, so not a big deal. When my burley comes in I think I'm going to do about half of it as perique (the right way) in two or three batches.

 

[Planter]

An update on making "low pressure" Perique with the jar-in-jar method I described before (which provides just enough pressure to keep the tobacco submerged the whole time):

It works.

After 3 months I had leaf looking, feeling and smelling like the Perique others had described here. The smoke is more alkaline than from any cigar leaf I know (without being too bitter or metallic) and it reliably eliminates bite in mixtures.

What´s quite unpredictable is the aroma.

Some has a strong wine / fermented-fruit odor, which actually comes through in the smoke.

Some smells like manure, but smokes like the fruity stuff.

It varies from jar to jar, even with the same tobacco variety in it.

Oriental Perique (made from Prilep) has all the above properties, and makes a good smoke on its own.

 

[oldbear]

From the reports that I have heard of "sour" batches, and I have been sent such a batch, when it smells rotten (suitable for flushing or burying) it is probably hopeless. All of the batches I have made had a grassy or pleasant tobacco aroma. Good perique should smell like fig preserves, but a slight rank (I call it "buggy") aroma is normal.
Most of my batches only smelled grassy (smoked OK) and I have not yet been able to get he fruity smell.

An update on making "low pressure" Perique with the jar-in-jar method I described before (which provides just enough pressure to keep the tobacco submerged the whole time):

It works.

After 3 months I had leaf looking, feeling and smelling like the Perique others had described here. The smoke is more alkaline than from any cigar leaf I know (without being too bitter or metallic) and it reliably eliminates bite in mixtures.

What´s quite unpredictable is the aroma.

Some has a strong wine / fermented-fruit odor, which actually comes through in the smoke.

Some smells like manure, but smokes like the fruity stuff.

It varies from jar to jar, even with the same tobacco variety in it.

Oriental Perique (made from Prilep) has all the above properties, and makes a good smoke on its own.

 

[jojjas]

I have reading this thread with great interest , somebody suggest that that use a vacuum-sealed bag could be used , well it have to be tested

Vacuum-sealed couple of ounces of criollo 98 a month ago , and this last week a change in the bag has occurred

something has starting in the bag , the color has become much darker , no visible mold yet , and some sort of gas has been produced inside the bag , it´s time for airing out the leafs next weekend so , some questions should be answered or maybe more questions could show up

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Please keep us updated jojjas, I'm very interested in your results.

 

[oldbear]

I am eagerly awaiting your results!

Oldbear

I have reading this thread with great interest , somebody suggest that that use a vacuum-sealed bag could be used , well it have to be tested
View attachment 17346
Vacuum-sealed couple of ounces of criollo 98 a month ago , and this last week a change in the bag has occurred
View attachment 17347
something has starting in the bag , the color has become much darker , no visible mold yet , and some sort of gas has been produced inside the bag , it´s time for airing out the leafs next weekend so , some questions should be answered or maybe more questions could show up

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I have reading this thread with great interest , somebody suggest that that use a vacuum-sealed bag could be used , well it have to be tested
View attachment 17346
Vacuum-sealed couple of ounces of criollo 98 a month ago , and this last week a change in the bag has occurred
View attachment 17347
something has starting in the bag , the color has become much darker , no visible mold yet , and some sort of gas has been produced inside the bag , it´s time for airing out the leafs next weekend so , some questions should be answered or maybe more questions could show up

I've had a vacuum sealed batch going for over a year now. It's got a chocolate aroma to it. It's close to 40% water and even if I open it for a few days between smelling it and getting back to vacuum sealing it, no mold forms.

 

[Smokin Harley]

my guess on that is that in however long of a time , it started its own culture , somewhat similar to sourdough.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

my guess on that is that in however long of a time , it started its own culture , somewhat similar to sourdough.

I admire how microorganisms create a world inherently beneficial to all of their kind.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

my guess on that is that in however long of a time , it started its own culture , somewhat similar to sourdough.

That reminds me. I had beers with Larry Evans once. He's a biologist. He told me of how when he was young and in school he analyzed his sourdough culture. He expected to see yeast and bacteria separate, when he looked at it under the microscope, he saw that the various bacteria and yeasts had combined into units and appeared as though they were functioning symbiotically

 

[jojjas]

Today it was time for the first aeration of my "pressureless perique" test-batch , after one month it was "grand opening"

The smell or as i would like to call it , the scent , is realy promising , not an repulsive odour , more of an fresh silage aroma , no signs of mould or other mishaps
And back vacuum sealed conditions for an additional month

 

[jojjas]

Second airing today

not much change in the color maybe a litle bit darker , but the scent has change dramaticly , the fresh sillage aroma are gone and altered to an more prunish or raisin like scent

I also start a batch of perique the more traditional way , 1 lbs of the pen red i grow the latest summer was in the bucket

 

[oldbear]

Smells like you hit it just right!

Oldbear

Second airing today
View attachment 17518
not much change in the color maybe a litle bit darker , but the scent has change dramaticly , the fresh sillage aroma are gone and altered to an more prunish or raisin like scent
View attachment 17519
I also start a batch of perique the more traditional way , 1 lbs of the pen red i grow the latest summer was in the bucket

 

[CobGuy]

Very interesting thread ... now I have yet another project.

I've made Sauerkraut before and am familiar with the concepts involved so this should be fun.

Thanks to all the contributors on this thread!